James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party) | Hansard source

Allegra Spender's candidacy in Wentworth has the appearance of another GetUp/350.org.au dodgy scam with serious implications for policy on Israel. Recently, Independent candidate for Wentworth Allegra Spender met with David Adler, president of the Australian Jewish Association. Spender said, 'It was really valuable to hear about the current BDS boycott and anti-Semitism.' She also said: 'I oppose the BDS boycott. It is counterproductive to building peace and I'll continue to speak out against it.' Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Spender told the Australian Jewish News that former 350.org.au CEO Blair Palese, who retweeted a post from Sydney Festival boycott organiser Fahad Ali praising the artists who had pulled out, does not work and has never worked on Spender's campaign. But the thing is that Spender's tilt for Wentworth is being orchestrated by a group linked to organisations that are increasingly targeting Israel, the main one being GetUp.

GetUp is founded on the fundamentally false claim that it is independent. Since its inception, GetUp has set out to deceive voters. In 2007, the Electoral Commission warned that GetUp's vote generator, which put coalition candidates last, was misleading and deceptive. In 2016, GetUp claimed the coalition was cutting hospital funding and backed Labor and the Greens—a lie. Worse, GetUp's campaign was premised on a sham survey of its members. GetUp then misled the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters about this survey.

Also in 2016, GetUp and 350.org.au ran a dirty tricks operation against five coalition MPs, buying web addresses likely to be found while searching for them on the net and populating these pages with disparaging content. These sites were authorised by Christina McPhail from a 'Dodgy brothers' GetUp address in Collingwood. McPhail started at 350.org.au in 2015. In 2019, GetUp telephoned voters, telling them lies about coalition candidates, and, worryingly, dispatched goons to bird-dog Liberal MPs. The only seat where GetUp was successful was Warringah, where a small group with links to GetUp and 350.org.au had selected the so-called Independent candidate.

In January 2018, Ray Yoshida, a former 350.org.au employee, supposedly took a three-month break from GetUp to lay the groundwork for the North Shore Environmental Stewards. McPhail also helped set up this group, formed to infiltrate Liberal branches and create fake defections. Mosman businessman Rob Grant became its president and Julie Giannesini joined in August 2018. The instigator of the Warringah Independent movement, Louise Hislop, also had links to the North Shore Environmental Stewards and GetUp. By Hislop's account, what she calls 'Small Cow'—standing for 'coalition of the willing' and comprising herself, Grant and Giannesini, along with others—selected Zali Steggall.

Something similar is now occurring in Wentworth, where a clique with left-wing links has selected their chosen candidate. By all accounts, Lyndell and Daniel Droga are the prime movers of Wentworth Independents Proprietary Limited. They were quickly joined by Blair Palese from 350.org.au. Lyndell Droga is credited with convincing Spender to stand. Daniel Droga is a shorts dealer and typical of the financial spivs—like vulture capitalist Damien Hodgkinson—who are now backing Independents. The Drogas have supported GetUp for at least 15 years, giving $20,000 in 2019, and Daniel giving $20,000 in 2007. GetUp's 2010 election report thanked them for their support. GetUp's 2006-07 annual report also thanked Daniel Droga.

Voices of Wentworth is still pretending to be uncommitted but will no doubt have a campaign that will put the Liberals last. Inevitably, GetUp will also publicly back Spender, as it did Kerryn Phelps. Recently, GetUp organiser Tracey Hamilton was spotted working for the Spender campaign. Spender is also using campaigners calling themselves the Populares Agency, comprising former GetUp and Labor campaigners. The people of Wentworth need to know that GetUp is increasingly anti-Israel. GetUp board member Sara Saleh co-organised the recent BDS boycott of Sydney Festival. Last year, GetUp posted a video in which Saleh accused Israel of wanting to erase the Palestinian presence from all over Palestine. It used the false 'ethnic cleansing' claim and, bizarrely, even charged Australia with direct complicity. Boss of GetUp Paul Oosting defended it. He said:

We are proud to platform our board director Sara Saleh …

…   …   …

GetUp has joined with civil society groups across the world in a growing global movement of solidarity and hope, as people everywhere speak out for justice in Palestine.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said it was 'another example of an organisation being manipulated into becoming a mouthpiece for the anti-Israel movement'. Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich said that GetUp had 'lost its moral compass'. Regrettably, an anti-Israel stance has been in GetUp's DNA since inception and nowadays is increasingly strident.

In 2016, hacked documents from George Soros's Open Society Foundations shed light on Soros's support of groups promoting the Palestinian cause and BDS actions targeting Israel. In 2004, Soros Fund Management gave $150,000 to Win Back Respect, a US campaign started by Jeremy Heimans and David Madden, who founded GetUp a year later. In 2007 Heimans and Madden launched Avaaz, a New York based global online activist platform. In 2008-09, Avaaz received $850,000 from Soros's Open Society Institute via Res Publica. Among the hacked OSF documents is a 2010 memo to Soros, which notes Avaaz is already an Open Society grantee and close collaborator. The OSF documents confirmed its extensive activities in supporting an ugly anti-Israel agenda. They detail numerous grants to organisations advocating for BDS and worse. And—surprise, surprise—Avaaz is at the forefront of anti-Israel campaigns, in particular BDS. Avaaz vows it will keep pushing until all companies financing the occupation of Palestine withdraw their investments. Avaaz has given GetUp $340,000 over recent years, and in Australia GetUp has edged closer to advocating for Palestinian causes and the BDS campaign.

In 2009, Anthony Lowenstein blogged how he was contacted by GetUp to begin an online debate on Israel and Palestine as a way for the group to dip its toe into the problem. In 2016 activist Sara Saleh joined GetUp's board, months later proclaiming, 'We must force Israel into a perennial state of existential anxiety.' We've had GetUp's video demonising Israel, and now Saleh's organising of the Sydney Festival boycott. Speaking of which, the claim by a spokesperson for Allegra Spender that Blair Palese—who retweeted the post from the Sydney Festival boycott organiser, Fahad Ali—does not and never has worked on a campaign doesn't wash. In fact, it's a lie—another lie from Spender's campaign. Palese may not have literally worked on Spender's campaign, but she certainly is a key figure on it. She is a key founder of Voices of Wentworth. Palese spoke at the first Voices of Wentworth virtual town hall. She was at Spender's campaign launch in a Spender shirt and regularly boosts Spender on her social media. Can the people of Wentworth trust a candidate who has been installed by a long-term GetUp supporter and 350.org.au figure, and whose campaign relies on senior GetUp operatives? Allegra Spender can say she opposes BDS, and she may do, but she is the cat's paw for forces who support it.

Senate adjourned at 22:35